Day 34 - Back at Home

Jim here.  Well, I know Lisandra and the kids have had a long day.  It's been a long day as well here at home.  Lots to do to get ready for the arrival.  Today's is Saturday, and I am hosting a national conference at work next Tuesday through Sunday.  So I have little time to finish getting Alejandro's room ready.

Today was the day to finish cleaning out the room (which is a small bedroom I used to store all my work clothes, get dressed for work, and generally store everything else that can't go outside in the shed).

With the help of Poppa, Grandma, and Uncle Tony we cleaned out everything, repaired drywall, painted the entire room from baseboards to the ceilings, cleaned the carpets, and put together the toddler bed!  We're all exhausted, but glad we accomplished so much today.

On to tomorrow -- shampoo the carpets, put shelves back on the walls, hang the picture of a monkey Annie drew for baby brother, and other stuff.

Then I'll write the speech I have to give Monday to a group of 300 . . .

St. John's Lutheran Church, Aspen Hill, MD

How wonderful is this?!?!  My mother in law just emailed me that our church said a prayer for our family last Sunday.  That must have been the extra special presence in the judge's office on Monday, that made everything go so well.

Thank you my beautiful extended family.  I knew we had picked a good "home" with you.  I look forward to raising our son to know and Love the Lord, as we have done with our daughter. 

Children are but the angels that God lets us borrow.

Love, Lisandra.

Warm hearts, smooches and snuggles.

Looooooong walk to the post office today, to find out they closed for lunch. It was definitely longer than an mile and a half. I walked around with Alejandro for 45 minutes until they were due to open and picked up a few surprises for Annalise on the way. Back at the post office I waited another 45 minutes until they ACTUALLY openned. This is the only post office in the entire city of over 450,000 people.

We bumped into some of the OSSO volunteers there. They first recognized Alejandro and called him by name. He went from being happy, funny and giggly to very withdrawn when they were cooing over him. I think I just got a glimpse of what our initial time will be like once home in the states. Right after they left, he resumed his happy, funny and giggly self. Now I understand better why it's recommended to stay home and avoid friends and family for about a month after we return home. A good friend told me to expect some regression then too.

At the post office, another friend was great to send me what I needed for the kids, and was so sweet to add some additional goodies for them. I'm so lucky. We took a cab back to the apartment because Alejandro had been very well behaved so far. But, it was past lunch and nap time and I was living on borrowed time. Back home, our yummy delivered lunch was waiting for us. The staff had taken it up to our apartment for me. Lunch. Nap for baby. Annie gets home and gets to enjoy all her goodies from the day. Homework, then playtime.

Today was our first skype call from daddy. The kids have done super with his return back home so far. I'm expecting a melt-down from both of them sometime, though. The best part of my day today was our skype call. Grandma joined in and it was nice to see Jim to be happy home and near his parents. We all miss them very much.

Annalise was more interested in her new...ahem...$1 "unofficial" copy of Barbie and the Three Muskateers. Just one of her surprise goodies today. And, for the record, my friend did NOT send it to me.

Ok, back to the skype call and best part of my day. Jim is on the video screen and Alejandro comes running to the computer. He loves skype calls. Grandma joins Jim and I tell him, "Abuela". He repeats, "Lela" and kisses the screen. I love it!!! He kisses Lela and Daddy over and over again. Aaaaawwwwe. We all had so much fun with that. He was very kissy this evening. He kisses my hand occasionally, like a little gentleman. So sweet. It makes up for the difficult times.

An hour after bedtime Alejandro was still awake in bed when I went in to smooch them both. I wonder what goes through his mind when he lays there quietly. I laid with him a while, holding hands, smooching, staring at his big beautiful brown eyes and carressing him. I don't know how much of that he's had in his life. I'm so glad I get to do it now. He's so worth this terrible ordeal we have been through the last 16 months, and especially the last five weeks.

Warm hearts, smooches and snuggles. Oddly, for some reason it reminds me that I really miss our church.

Goodnight.

Love, Lisandra.

We're having a great morning.  Annie was up and out to school.  I love, that she loves her school.  She looks so cute in her uniform too.

And she loves her school bus and buddies.

Alejandro and I had a good hearty breakfast of scrambled eggs, bread (he now likes PBJ on it), cereal, milk and watermelon.  He wakes up so happy everday.  Our rep stopped by this morning to get our POA and go do some legwork on our behalf.  Soon, we'll get ready to go to the post office to pick up my package.  It's nice to know that you can receive a package here.  I think it took about two weeks to arrive.  It's about a mile and a half walk to the post office.  I think I'll just pack some snacks and stay out for the day.  It helps that we bought a cheap local phone so I can be reached by Annie's school or our reps, when needed.   He doesn't know it yet but I made his favorite no-bake oatmeal cookies.  His face lights up and he claps when he sees them. 

Jim arrived home safely last night.  Thanks be to God.

Day 33- When it rains, it pours, literally...but then comes the sunshine.

Well, first let me start with some of the great stuff, and there is great stuff.  Monday we had our court appearance, and as you know now, it went well.  We dressed up.  Met a new attorney that was assigned to us.  Apparently, our attorney could not represent us for that because she is employed by the agency.  Not to worry, though.  All the new attorney did was be present.  We didn't need him to "do" anything except sign the papers on the dotted line, so to speak.  I made sure to ask him the process before we enterred the room, so that I was sure not to repeat our last meeting.  The court appointed translator arrived.  Everybody smiled, I even detected a small glimpse of a smile on the judge as we concluded.

Alejandro was still feeling a little under the weather either due to the Friday's vaccinations or due to our altitude changes from Cuenca to Quito and back to Cuenca.  I know I was feeling very poorly.  BTW, I received a package at the post office from my wonderful friend that sent me some over-the-counter children's motrin and sudafed I can't get here.  I exhausted my supply with the kids colds, bronchitis and recently, immunizations.  THANK YOU!!!  You can't find these OTC in Cuenca, local law.  I think it's different in Quito, because I saw some ibuprofen there.

Today is a gorgeous day. Absolutely gorgeous. The weather could not be more perfect. We're enjoying it from the apartment grounds because I didn't want to venture far from home...I managed to develop a bad stomach the last two days and I don't know how. Everyone else is fine, once again, and thank goodness.

Another great thing I discovered today is that the apartment owner has food delivered to her daily. She says its very good, freshly made and inexpensive. I jumped on that bandwagon, knowing well that she would know the best place to receive this kind of service from. No cooking, fewer dishes, fresh and yummy? Oh yeah, I'm on it. It was delicious and very geneous too. I thought two portions would be enough for myself and the kiddos, but it's actually too much, so tomorrow I will ask for just one portion. It had a potato and cheese soup called Locro, white rice (always), meatballs stewed in a yummy tomato sauce with fresh peas and carrots, and a banana puff pastry. I shared with the neighbor, Titima, who's Thai. Her son and Annalise have become good buddies, although the boy doesn't speak much English and almost no Spanish. Titima is married to an American and they moved here from Thailand three months ago to buy a pig farm. Wow. Our families have become quite dependent on eachother for support and we will miss them when we leave.

Yesterday, our reps husband came to take Jim to sign a power of attorney giving me permission to complete the rest of the process. From here on, he doesn't have to be present, as long as I have a power of attorney.  The two of them went to the notary public and were told they needed to bring an official translator with them, since Jim did not understand 100% of what he was reading or being told.  He says he understood about 90%.  Sooooooo, what was to be a 15 minute process, took about 4 hours before they could schedule both the translator and the notary public at once.  I wasn't allowed to be the translator, because I am the person receiving the POA.

All throughout the day, I worked on getting Jim flights back to home.  He has worked so hard trying to manage things from here with poor internet reception, skype and occasionally very expensive phone calls.  He's tried everything to do the best he can, more than anyone will be aware of.  He really needed to get home.  No one here in the process seems to really understand that, because they would be able to take off of work for however long they had to.  Crazy Americans, we are.

After hours of my being online and on the phone, Jim had to finally go to the airport to finalize flights.  The first available flight out with an exchange ticket would be for March 7th.  Oh no!  So, we had the privilege of buying a new ticket with a different airline at peak price.  Lovely.  This awaits me in a couple of weeks.

He had to fly to Quito last night, so he could make a connection today, and praise be, let him get home soundly.

A little while ago, the reps husand dropped off the POA.  I told him it was made of gold.  He laughed.  Along with that we received some bad news, bad to me anyway.  Sighhhhh...he just found out I have the "privilege" of going to Quito to be interviewed by some hoop-te-ha before I can go to the embassy in Guayaquil to get the little prince's final get out of dodge papers. This adds another plane trip, another two days (to the 2- 2 1/2 weeks left, and more stress to the process.  Originally, we weren't going to have to go to Quito, only the families that were already in Quito were made to go.  But, as many things keep changing in this fairly new process in Ecuador, there is now a new hoop-te-ha in that position that wants see everyone.

Lastly, the judge's house had an "emergency" during a HUGE hail storm we had two days ago...so...still waiting on him to sign off on the papers. Literally, when it rains, it pours. 

Looking out the window at the beautiful sunshine and awaiting my princess from school any minute.  Both reasons to smile, among many.  (***I wrote this much earlier today***)

Love, Lisandra
P.S.  The photo is of Annalise giving a brother a "haircut"...this could be bad...better hide the real scissors.

Day 31- It's Official!!!

Introducing the Rojas Knotts or Knotts Rojas family, depending on which country you're in!!!  He's officially ours!

Took my little guy to receive the rest of his two-year old immunizations this morning. He immediately recognized the grounds of the children's home when we enterred the gates and started to whimper. I'm not sure why. It seemed like a sad whimper like he didn't want to be there, but then he saw the grounds keeper, a man who takes wonderful care of the grounds as well as the facility and staff. Alejandro was happy to see him. He was especially happy to see the social worker that he has known all his life. He led her to her office where apparently he always likes to look up at the mountains. Then he turned around and waved at me and said, "Ciao". The little stinker! He thought that was funny.

We walked a couple of blocks on the main street to a doctor who sees the children from the homes when needed. Her normal office visit costs $30 but only charges OSSO $3 for their visits. That is so awesome! He took the checkup like a champ. She didn't charge us because she was so glad to see one of the children find a forever family. He's managed to gain some weight while he has been with us, even though I don't feel he eats up to his previous quantities. Obviously, it's enough!

We then took a taxi to the health office for immunizations and there were no less than thirty or so families waiting to be seen. Again, the office knows the social workers from the children's homes well and agreed to help us out, and pass us through. Once again, they were so happy to see one of the children with a new mommy, that they were thrilled to let us go ahead of everyone else. They answered all my questions about his immunization status so I can relay the information and documentation to the pediatrician at home accurately. He took one shot like a champ. The second really hurt bad...yellow fever. I told them that one isn't required in the states and asked if we could skip it, but they said it will be required to leave the country. Poor little guy!
We were able to get a flight to Quito in the afternoon and our rep helped us with a recommendation of a place to stay. It's technically a hostal but if it is, it's the nicest hostal I've ever seen. More of a hotel. Looks like it dates back to the 1920's. Great old pics of the city in the hallways from the turn of the century. I always love looking at pictures like those.

Poor little guy started not feeling well during dinner. We can only assume that given he received his shots today and by the way he was crying insessantly. He especially cried when his bottom was touched or he was made to sit down. We figured it out. He's hard to figure out sometimes given that he doesnt' yet have much of a vocabulary. We're working on that. He uses a couple of signs we have taught him in the meantime, the most important one being "bathroom". I couldn't get him to say yes or no to whether or not he was in pain. He just cried. Jim and I felt bad that we hadn't figured it out sooner. I had given him a dose of children's motrin after his shots, but he was due another dose.

We just came back to the hotel, rather than go out for the early evening. We held and rocked him, gave him a juice he had wanted throughout dinner and then I laid with him until he fell asleep. Hopefully he will feel much better tomorrow.
Annie said the greatest thing today, she said, "I thought I would be jealous of my new baby brother but I'm not, I just love him so much." The wisdom of a five year old.
Love, Lisandra